Barcelona officials expect ‘leaders’ to leave the club like Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol soon

Barcelona have always had a rich heritage of club legends doing everything they can for their team.

The likes of Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta are all part of that unique history that shaped the club. Their contributions on the pitch led to one of the club’s most successful periods, under the leadership of Pep Guardiola.

At the same time, they were selfless enough to call an end to their respective careers, to make way for newer players.

Some of the board members at Barcelona expect the current club’s leaders to follow such a selfless approach and intuition to leave Camp Nou at the ideal time, in order to hand the torch over to someone else, as per Toni Juanmarti via Siempre Positivo podcast.

Juanmarti’s report comes in the midst of uncertainty swirling around the future of some of Barcelona’s experienced players, including none other than Gerard Pique.

The defender has been already informed by Xavi, of his diminishing role in the first team. The Barcelona coach has also expressed worries over his fitness. Quite unsurprisingly, reports of the club offloading the veteran this summer followed suit.

However, instead of reacting to pressure and packing his bags away from Camp Nou, Pique has reportedly informed Xavi of his desire to stay and fight for his place in the first team.

This has served as a major setback for Barça. Even though the player has agreed to lower his salary, he is still the highest-paid member of the team, and his presence in the squad does, to an extent, cripple the club’s powers in the market.

Barcelona are facing a similar situation with Sergio Busquets. Unlike Pique, the midfielder is an undisputed first-team player who is invaluable to the team due to his experience and positional intelligence.

However, with his contract expiring in 2023, Busquets has reportedly rejected Barcelona’s proposal of further lowering his salary. He is also expected to leave the club for free next season, effectively leaving the Catalans devoid of any financial boost, in any form.